Nova Scotia has launched its first comprehensive plan on aging with the focus of keeping older residents healthy and engaged in their communities.
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By 2030, more than one in four Nova Scotians will be aged 65 and over, according to the plan, called Shift.
The action plan was announced on Thursday and will see $13.6 million invested over the next three years by the province.
The plan identifies a dozen “priority commitments,” according to a government release. Within these commitments are more than 50 “specific actions.”
Premier Stephen McNeil told a crowded room at a Fall River, N.S. community centre that action items in the plan will be the responsibility of eight different provincial departments and includes a score card so “every year, we’ll hold them accountable.”
“This is a cross-government initiative, it’s a cross-community initiative,” McNeil said.
Some of the Shift initiatives include helping Nova Scotians stay in their homes longer, improving access to healthy, affordable food, highlighting the benefits of hiring older workers in the workplace and creating age-friendly workplaces.
Marjorie Willison, who was co-chair for the action plan’s advisory committee, said she was “bursting with pride” about the launch.
She said the plan was something that could be used “to our advantage.”
“We need to embrace and celebrate older adults, this shift in the population and really focus our attention on the many contributions that older adults can make and are making,” Willison said.
Numbers released by Statistics Canada in 2014 showed Nova Scotia and New Brunswick both had the highest proportion of seniors aged 65 and older at 18.3 per cent each.
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According to the release, the government communicated with more than 600 Nova Scotians during an engagement process, which included community conversations and people and organizations providing direct input.
Opposition says more work needed, concerned about timing
The plan did not come without criticism.
The province’s NDP Leader, Gary Burrill, told reporters the plan is “a fine initiative,” but in a release he said he was concerned the plan was “just empty words.”
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“It is a little bit hypocritical and hard to take to hear these fine words about seniors’ programming from a government that has done so much harm to seniors,” Burrill said.
Burrill said the plan was missing pieces, specifically putting back $8 million he said was taken from nursing homes in the province. He added he’d also like to see money restored to the Alzheimer’s Society.
Progressive Conservative Leader Jamie Baillie said Thursday that while there were some “good things” in the plan, there are bigger concerns of seniors.
“The reality though for most seniors in Nova Scotia today is they’re worried about whether they’re going to have a family doctor. They don’t know where their pharmacare premiums are going to go next. They’re wondering about home care and the premier had nothing to say on all those issues today,” Baillie said.
He also said he’s concerned about the timing of the announcement.
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“When it’s an election year, they come out with these fancy documents that have some pretty lofty goals, that’s good,” Baillie said. “But in a non-election year, we’ve seen them jack up seniors’ pharmacare, we’ve seen them cut nursing home budgets for food and things that are so important.”
— With files from Natasha Pace, Global News.
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